It Doesn't Matter (Matter #1)

28. Planet Moor

They were all in the lobby when the ship took off, it was swift and they barely felt it move at all but the change in gravity told them all they needed to know when they left the planet's atmosphere.
"Look at all those stars," Malkia cooed when they were finally in space, there was another large window by the lobby. They were all gathered around it looking out.
"That's the Hussein Solar System," Simba showed the others a large grin star, it was close to theirs but it was at least thousand light years away.
"How can they own a whole Solar System?" Naya asked.
"That's what their company is based in,"
"I thought they made furniture,"
"Yeah but where do they get their material? You're not allowed to cut trees in Uiths, they don't want you burning things either so the best way to produce is to look for another dispensable system."
Naya, Tom and Malkia shared a look.
Moor was much closer so it only took a few hours to get there and that was because the new members wanted to enjoy the ride, if they had used light speed it would of have been only a couple of minutes.
It was basically night time when they arrived on the planet, it had lavender oceans and pink beaches and all the trees had green on their stems and brown on their leaves. It looked like an explosion of colors. The star gave off a faded light that muted the colors in a way that made everything seem hazy.
The air didn't help make things any clearer it was heavy in the way that made you feel drugged.
"What's wrong with the air here?" one of the girls that Jay and Simba had brought asked, her name was Alma and her friend's name was Elma.
"It's artificial air, not exactly the type of oxygen you're used to taking."
"It makes me feel high somehow," Naya said looking around.
They were on the beach and there wasn't a moon in sight but all the stars looked much bigger here than they did back on Uiths. Behind them all was the private property that Chen Corp owned. It was off limits to everyone else but it was quite possibly the best part of the Moor.
It was a large beach front property surrounded by the exotic plants that were found here. They had everything one could ever need and none of the people that flooded all the other resorts on the planet. It was the perfect vacation house for the Chens.
The entire planet came to be because Mr. Chen was coming up with a present for his wife, he gifted her this planet as their own vacation place and she thought it was a waste not to use it to earn money so they went to work in making this planet one of the most expensive vacation sights in the galaxy.
"It takes a while to get used to it," Ryuu offered looking at Malkia, she was uncharacteristically quiet "we can all go to sleep tonight and explore tomorrow."
They all agreed to go to sleep. Ryuu insisted on having Malkia in the same room with him, she didn't want to but he eventually got his way.
He seemed to be getting his way a lot recently.
That was why she was looking up at the ceiling a few hours later. She couldn't fall asleep. She felt odd because of the air and being here and it didn't help her nerves that she was sleeping next to a man.
She gave up on sleep a few minutes later and decided to go outside.
All the windows were open and the breeze from the beach was flowing in, she found herself moving towards it until she was on the beach. She didn't think anything bad would happen to her if she kept on walking along the beach so she starting walking along it. The lavender water on the pink sand looked surreal.
She started fidgeting with her hand, unused to wearing anything on it. The bracelet though simple was kind of heaving so she unlatched it and held it in her arms and started chanting to herself not to drop it.
That was what was running through her mind when she noticed a figure sitting on the beach, it was on the other side of the entrance, she would not of have seen them had she not gone on her walk.
"Hello," she called out as she approached them, she saw when the person turned around that it was Luke "Hey Luke," she said self-consciously. She wondered if she should turn around.
"Hey," he said smiling at her, his smile was rare she completely blanked "couldn't sleep huh?"
"No," she said, her voice was dull like she didn't know how to speak because she was still recovering from the smile.
"Come on," he said patting the place next to him.
He thought she looked exceptionally pretty in her white t-shirt, he wasn't sure if she was wearing anything else underneath, he wasn't sure if it was a good idea for him to want to find out.
"You couldn't fall asleep either?" she asked as she sat down and folded her legs so her knees were spread out wide.
"Mm," he said "not really, I just came out here to think."
"Oh,"
"Don't you want to know what I came to think about?"
"Do you want to tell me?"
He smiled at her once more; this wasn't his usual smile she realized now that she was so close. There was something different about it and it had to do with more than the fact that she was staring into his clear blue eyes while the ocean filled his background.
"Maybe," he said then went back to stare at the ocean.
She stayed quiet and looked out at the ocean as well, the water looked so beautiful.
"How long do you think it takes to fall in love?" he asked her all of a sudden.
"I wouldn't know," she said turning to look at him.
"How long did it take you to fall in love-" he turned to look straight into her eyes then, the same way he did when he told them that he was no longer seeing Jamila "-with me?"
Malkia was taken back. She wondered if she was that obvious and felt her cheeks grow hot with humiliation but she didn't duck her head the way she usually did instead she said "It took no time at all,"
He looked back at the ocean again.
"How did you know I loved you not just-" she asked him.
"Like me? Nobody's ever looked at me that way," he said "girls like me they look at me a certain way but none of them looked as helpless as you did."
"What about Jamila? I think she must have looked that way too,"
He sighed "Jamila is complicated,"
"Is that why you two broke up?"
"No," he was quiet and she didn't want to probe anymore but he added after a while "I'm complicated too, so it felt like maths, two negatives-"
"Make a positive!"
"Only if you're multiplying, and we weren't so, it felt like it was time."
"Mm,"
"And I think I'm love with someone else," he said after another while.
"Oh,"
"Do you want to know who it is?"
"Do you want me to know?"
"Maybe," he said then added "you should go back to bed,"
She felt like it was a warning so she stood up, wiped her butt with both her hands and walked back to her room.
She didn't expect to find all the lights on and all the servers moving about. It was still night time but there they all were with flashlights.
"What's going on?" she asked the one closest to her.
"We're looking for Master Chen's girlfri-" the server had turned and seen her face so he knew that the person they were looking for was right there so he turned back to the house and shouted "I found her!"
And then Ryuu appeared out of thin air, he ran up to her "Where were you?" he asked placing his hands on her shoulder before hugging her "I was so worried," he said taking off his coat and slipping onto her before he led them back to her room.
"Sorry," she said as they walked "I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk,"
"By yourself? You've been gone for almost an hour and you didn't get to any of the check points so the guards couldn't be certain if you were even on the beach."
"I sat down and stared at the water after a bit," she didn't know why she hadn't just told him about Luke. They had done nothing wrong, although she was pretty sure that Luke had been telling her that he was in love with her before he told her to go.
Her heart was pretty sure too and it didn't know what to do with that.
He was Jamila's ex.
She was with Ryuu, even though they weren't really together, she was his.
"Write me a note next time, okay?" Ryuu said taking her back to their room he made her lie down before he did the same. He turned and looked at her like he couldn't believe that he was seeing her at all "I thought you had drowned for a second there."
"Didn't you see my foot print or something?"
"They ended on the edge of the ocean, maybe you were walking along the edge and the water wiped the rest."
"Right." She couldn't believe he had been so worried "Sorry."
They got into bed and he wrapped his arms around her this time, he didn't fall asleep and so they were both laying there silent and mostly awkward for Malkia because her heart was still thrumming from Luke's words.
She wondered why he seemed to hold so much power of her and why he seemed to get under her skin quite easily. And she thought about his words. Everyone had told her he would never like her and she had believed them.
Jamila had told her they might as well be married, Jay and Simba said he only ever loved Jamila and Ryuu had told her he would never like a girl like her, but there he was sitting on the beach looking quite lonely and almost telling her he loved her.
What a mess they were in, it didn't matter that he loved her now and she loved him. They could never be together without hurting other people.
She wondered if she was willing to hurt Ryuu just to be with him. She raised her face to look into his eyes and knew that the answer was no, she could not.
That was the reason behind her lie she didn't want him to over think and think that anything was happening between them.
"Can't fall asleep?" he asked her after a while, she's was looking at the wall and he faced the same direction holding her in a cuddle.
"No,"
"What do you usually do when you can't fall asleep?"
"I don't do anything really I resign myself to spending the entire night up."
"I usually have someone read or sing to me,"
"By someone you mean the millions of people you employ?"
"Yes, but you don't have those people," she kicked him for that comment "but you have me, do you want me to sing for you?"
She found herself smiling, she was sure he was a horrible singer "Do you know any lullabies?"
"Sure," he said and started humming for her, she must have fallen asleep because the star was shining bright when she opened her eyes and the water ahead of her room look like it was inside her own head, it was so clean and so clear with the shimmering pink sand encompassing it.